Guns that bite

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kozak6

New member
A friend of mine has this absurd little 20 gauge shotgun. The fit is outrageously bad and it doesn't weigh anything, so it absolutely wallops the heck out of anyone who shoots it.

We'd been shooting 12 gauges all day, no prob, but this silly 20 gauge felt like it kicked 4x harder. It's impressive that it's so awful to shoot.

The same friend also thinks it's hilarious to fire rifles and shotguns like they are giant pistols. Accuracy is poor, but it can be entertaining enough.

So I thought I'd try it with that 20 gauge.

Big mistake. The locking lever was on the tang. Tore up the web of my hand. Hurt like like heck, but I was able to keep shooting after a while. It could have gone much worse. I've read about people needing stitches after doing similar things.
 
N

natman

New member
steveno said:
Charter Arms Bulldog 44 special with Elmer's memorial loads
Click to expand...
I've found recoil to be quite sufficient with a Bulldog shooting factory level loads. I can't imagine shooting an Elmer load in one. It's a very small, light gun for a 44 and eventually it will shoot loose doing that.
 
J

jimbob86

Moderator
I had a Mauser 95 cocking piece rebound (primer pierced) and smack my thumb right behind the nail..... lost the nail, eventually. Was reading somewhere (Cooper's Commentaries, maybe?) that the correct way to hold these rifles was with the thumb alongside the stock pointing forward, for precisely this reason.
 
4

44 AMP

Staff
I've got several of those light Remington carbines. Even the .308 lets you know you've "been kissed!" The .350 literally has to be experienced to be believed.

I've also got a Ruger No.3 in .45-70 that can launch a 350gr @ 2200fps! :eek:

And a Mauser in .458 Win Mag that goes about 8lbs. Not even fun with heavy loads.

But I'm not talking so much about heavy recoil in rifles where, hopefully you have a proper stock fit and do your part mounting the gun correctly, but more about instances where a gun has "bitten" you due to moving parts and position of yourself,

For example the Winchester 97 shotgun scares the crap out of me, though I haven't actually been bitten by one, (probably because it scares me and I take extra precautions). Have your thumb over the stock when the bolt (and its shape edges) comes back, and you could be sliced.

Getting "Weatherby eyebrow" because that "good cheek weld" was just a LITTLE too close...things like that.

Taking a hasty squat and having a rifle's recoil knock you ass over teakettle and down a hill doesn't count.

Depending on who makes them, I wear a size 8.5 or 9 glove. I've never been hammer bit by a High Power or a Govt Model. Might just be me...:rolleyes:

I have had the sharp checkering of a new factory grip on a model 629 "cheese grater" my hand, including a very painful scrape where the butt pinched me between it and a sandbag (THAT one was MY fault).

Friend of mine was watching me shoot my 14" Contender .45-70, which has a red dot sight on the top. He asked to try it. He did a fine job locking his wrists, but didn't do so well with his elbows, and the sight hit him in the nose.
:eek:

(he did hit the target!)

After the bleeding (and the laughter) stopped, he tried again, with much better results,
 
Z

zukiphile

New member
Frankenmauser said:
Hi-Powers hurt the web of my hand, after a couple magazines.
Click to expand...

I have never fired one. I heard about the hammer bite on these, so when one was offered to me I checked my grip while it was still empty. It was impossible for me to hold, point and pull without the skin from the web of my mitt riding up over the tiny tang and into the path of the hammer.

The first revolver I shot was a .38 snub nose. I didn't understand that I couldn't hold it the same way I hold a pistol. My thumb knuckle bled for perhaps 20 minutes. Not a design flaw in the firearm, but quite a surprise.
 
4

4V50 Gary

Staff
I have small hands and can hold a semi-automatic pistol with thumb over thumbs w/out worrying about getting captain bars (twin track marks cut into your hand by the slide).

That said, when I was in Germany I was given a chance to fire a C96 Mauser with a shoulder stock. It was a later small ring hammer and not the earlier large ring/cone hammer version. Years of wanting to shoot one and I finally get to do it and in Germany too! Well, hammer bite every time. Talk about disappointing and un-fun experience. Thumb had to be held straight against the frame instead of over the stock.
 
2

2wheelwander

New member
I've had a few bite me but were my fault. One gun I have less than zero desire to ever shoot again is the AMT backup .380. Haven't shot it in a few decades and Dad just keeps it polished up now, but I remember that thing as just being obnoxious to shoot. Superb deep cover last ditch shoot your way out gun if you can find ammo it likes, but one gun I don't like.
 
B

Brutus

New member
I was always partial to the 30-06. Had the opportunity to shoot a 375H&H, thought it was kinda like a 12gauge, not to bad. Shot a 458 Winchester and that hurt but nothing ever hurt as much as my friends 300 Weatherby Mag.
think my shoulder was black and blue for a month.:eek:
 
L

Logs

New member
I had a Rock Island 1911 that really hurt to shoot. Hammer would come back and pinch the heck out of the webbing in my hand.

My Sig 230 also bites, but it is mostly recoil related. Not a very fun gun to shoot, but I think it just looks cool. Funny thing is that I use to have a similar sized Bersa and it shot great and was half the cost.
 
1

10-96

New member
Prior to firing, the 1903 and 03A3's feel awesome with the right thumb perched up over that straight stock. That thumb just sits so perfectly up under your right cheekbone right up until you pull the trigger. That'll teach a man brand new words right quick and in a hurry!
 
D

Doyle

New member
Ruger SP101 with the factory grips - trigger guard would bite/rub my middle finger. Switching to the Hogue grips solved that.
 
C

Crankylove

New member
Worst Pistol I’ve ever shot, is my uncles j frame with hot 357’s.

Trigger guard has drawn blood from my trigger finger more than once. I don’t shoot it any more.

Got some scope bite a few times when I was young from my dads .300 winmag, but that was more from inexperience (and not listening to dad) than any fault of the gun/cartridge.

My dad used to have a .458 win mag, that he liked to load with heavy bullets and hot powder charges. Not sure why, cause he’d shoot one round, then hand it off to who ever was around, wanting them to shoot the rest. It was painful, to the shoulder, to the head, just all around unpleasant, you’d feel it for days afterward. Shot a few of those, and said no more.
 
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pete2

New member
A 1911 with the small grip safety has on occasion bit me. Had the square trigger guard bite me(bad), Redhawk with some real nice Herritt grips draw blood. SKB O/U guns kick my face off. BUT the worst thing (because there is no fix for it) is my Glock 19, it eats my trigger finger, gonna have to sell it.
 
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Hal

New member
PPk/s - slide left two little furrows on the back of my hand. Plus, the recoil was uncomfortably above what I expected.

S&W M66 "Snub nose" - using 158 grain full boogie magnums, the web of my hand took a bloody beating from the cylinder release. Pity - I had really wanted to like that gun.

H&R .58 black powder muzzleloader. Just out and out brutal. H&R took their single shot break action shotgun, stuck a rifled barrel on it & stuck in a breech plug with a nipple.
120 grains of FFG under a 500-grain Minnie ball defines a new level of intense for me. I only did that insanity about a half dozen times - maybe (probably..) less than that.
 
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stinkeypete

New member
Like everyone I’ve been knuckle-banged by a dragoon triggered Ruger Blackhawk from not minding my hand position.

The only time I have ever dropped a pistol came from a T/C Contender in .357 Maximum where I had installed that walnut grip with the rubber back strap. Under recoil, the gap between the rubber and walnut opened up and when it closed tight a good inch of the skin on my palm shoved in, only to be bit hard after recoil. Since it was single shot and I had no scope on it i had no qualms about dropping it in a grassy hummock to concentrate on hopping around while holding my hand and shouting creative strings of bad words. It really really hurt.

I had a huge blood blister just in front of the meat of my thumb and it ended my session to go get ice for my throbbing paw. I never used that grip again and never shot that .357 again without the mass of a scope on it to tame the wicked recoil.

Less glorious, I once shot the ramrod out of a Savage MLII smokeless powder muzzle loader and that left a huge bruise. Heaviest recoil I have ever felt. That was with a moderate deer hunting load of Lil Gun. The plastic ramrod was found turned in to a corkscrew stuck deep in a big tree. That’s the sort of mistake people make when cold and exhausted and guns are dangerous but I never thought I would make such a noob mistake. I did. Thankfully I didn’t blow up and I will make more mistakes but I doubt that mistake again (as I no longer shoot muzzle loaders and once doing it I learned to not be in such a hurry for a shot.)

That gun could shoot some real elephant gun loads but shooting the ramrod ... I wasn’t shooting rifle for a month.
 
F

FITASC

New member
One I will not shoot, (but hate to sell because it was a WWII bringback of my FIL) is a Beretta model 34 (dated 1943). The Slide Bite WILL rip your thumb after a few rounds
 
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